Hands-On Activity: Colliding Particles

This is the fourth in a series of five posts by Pearson Science on one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the year.
1. Higgs Boson Discovery | 2. Collaboration and Competition | 3. Teaching the Higgs Boson | 4. Hands-On Activity: Colliding Particles | 5. Hands-On Activity: What’s in the Box?

Colliding Particles

The purpose of this activity is to introduce you to some of the factors involved in producing intentional particle collisions, such as the ones that occur in the Large Hadron Collider shown at the top of this post.

Materials: two tennis balls; small flat surface, such as a desktop;
ping-pong balls (a dozen); large flat surface, such as a classroom floor

Procedure
1. Read all the steps of the procedure and design a data table to collect and organize your data.
Part A: Starting from opposite corners of a desk, you and your partner will each roll a tennis ball slowly toward the each other’s corner (see illustration above).
2. Predict how often the balls will collide; write your prediction in your data table.
3. Starting at the same time, you and your partner slowly roll your tennis balls toward the opposite corners of the desk.
4. Conduct 5 trials and record the number of collisions in your data table.

Part B: Use the smaller ping pong balls instead of the tennis balls.
5. Predict how often the balls will collide; write your prediction in your data table.
6. Starting at the same time, you and your partner slowly roll the ping pong balls toward the opposite corners of the desktop.
7. Conduct 5 trials and record the number of collisions in your data table.

Part C: Repeat the activity using ping pong balls, but instead of the desktop, use a large, clear area of the classroom floor as the “collision zone.”
11. Predict how often the balls will collide; write your prediction in your data table.
12. Starting at the same time, you and your partner very quickly roll the ping pong balls toward the opposite corners of the classroom floor.
13. Conduct 5 trials and record the number of collisions in your data table.

Questions
1. Based on your results, list two factors that affect the rate of particle collisions.
2. Explain how these factors affect the rate of collisions.

Extension
Discuss Part C of the activity with your partner. Work together to design some ways to increase the rate of particle collisions. Write a description of your plan, get your teacher’s approval, and conduct an experiment to test your ideas.